With the national elections in the Philippines only months away, Filipinos will look at the media to provide them information to help them in choose the candidates that they will elect.

Media’s role is indeed unsurpassed which is why the Friedrich Naumann Foundation hosted a forum entitled “The Media in Elections, Manipulating or Informing?” on January 27 at the Dusit Hotel Nikko in Makati.

Friedrich Naumann Foundation Resident Representative Dr. Ronald Meinardus said that the media plays a vital role to ensure democracy and that the foundation aimed to help improve through the discussion the coverage of the upcoming elections .

“With the elections just around the corner, it is timely to discuss what could be done to make electoral politics more transparent to voters” Dr. Meinardus said.

A number of issues came up during the forum that described the importance of the media and the current trends within it through the speeches of the panel composed of veteran local and foreign journalists.

Forum moderator Ricky Carandang, ANC anchor and business editor of NEWSBREAK magazine in his remarks prior to the discussion by the panel said that historically Filipinos considered the government as its “big brother, the entity people would run to in times of trouble”.

He however also said that the government of today does not have that connection with Filipinos and as a result, the media has become “the new big brother” of citizens because they feel more connected with the media than the government.

Veteran Columnist Paulynn Sicam recounting her experiences, shared with the forum what the media here in the Philippines is like.

“Gossip is peddled as fact… Everyone seems to be a player… It’s nasty, it’s intrusive and it has no filter” Ms. Sicam said.

She also pointed out that some journalists become puppets of their respective companies because of the political alliances of their big bosses which in turn favour certain politicians’ media coverage and that “money goes around the media circles”.

John O’ Callaghan of Reuters pointed out that the Philippine media lacks clarification of issues prior to elections. In his experience here in the country, Mr. O’ Callaghan noted that too many politicians say their piece on an issue which just confuses the public as to who is telling the truth.

“I just assume its all crap and I work my way up there” He candidly said.

He however also said that confusing election coverage and controversies are not unique to the Philippines. He mentioned the Florida issue in the last US elections as a case where an election received numerous angles from the media.

Stella Estremera, the editor of Sun Star newspaper in Davao said that if the media has a hard time covering elections in the big city such as Manila, it is even harder in the smaller communities in the provinces.

“It’s a nightmare… You can’t escape the politician because everybody in the small communities knows each other” Ms. Estremera said.

With the biases and the entertainment-like coverage of the media, alternatives were suggested during the open forum.

One gentleman in the audience suggested foreign ownership of certain media outlets. He compared it to the changes in the Philippine banking system where foreign ownership made changes in employment benefits. He stressed that “salaries of media people will increase” which in turn could make a more objective media possible.

Dr. Florangel Braid, President of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication suggested another alternative: a Public Broadcast System.

“The Media of today focuses on personalities rather than party platforms” Dr. Braid said.

She further said that a public broadcasting system similar to that of the Europeans would be a “cultural enrichment” and at the same time serve as the balancing coverage of the media outlets here in the Philippines because it is not owned by an elite group.

With the current state of the media here in the Philippines, an objective coverage of the upcoming elections seems impossible. However, Dieter Jepsen-Foge of Deutschland Radio Berlin reminded the audience of the basic role of the media to reflect upon.

“The role of the media is more to inform than to manipulate” Mr. Jepsen-Foge Said.